How do I keep cool in summer?

August is our second hottest month of the year. The air is hot but not as hot as places we spend a lot of time and not as hot as things we touch. For example, car interiors can heat up to more than 150 degrees F. when parked in full sun. Metal surfaces can burn hands. My wife and I eat at a restaurant that wraps a towel around the handle on the front door so patrons don’t blister their fingers. Evaporation is so intense that washing your car becomes a contest as you race to dry the windows before thousands of water spots appear.

To assist everyone in keeping cooler I have prepared a list of the ten most important things you can do to beat the heat. Here they are:

#10 Park your car so that it faces north. We live in the Northern Hemisphere and so pointing your car to the north faces it away from the sun and minimizes the amount of solar radiation that strikes the parts of the car you touch and on which you sit. The cardboard monstrosities some persons place on the inside of their front windshield are great, too.

#9 Leave all your windows open -- Just a bit. Leaving each window cracked allows some air circulation in your car and can make it up to thirty degrees cooler inside. Don’t worry about thieves. If they want to get in, they’ll break a window anyway.

#8 Get up early! Even during July, the hottest month, temperatures are usually below 80 degrees at sunrise. Dawn is the time to wash your car, go for a walk, or go grocery shopping. (There are some supermarkets open at dawn!)

#7 Take cold showers. A cold shower lowers the temperature of your skin and can keep you feeling relatively cool for up to an hour. (I have discovered that this technique also lowers your water bill since it’s so darn hard to stay in the shower when the water is cold.)

#6 Don’t be active outside until late afternoon when the sun disappears behind the mountains. It’s the sun’s direct rays, not the air temperature, that makes you feel really hot. Besides, dusk is a good time to shop. The stores won’t be open much longer so you can’t spend much money.

#5 Close your blinds or at least close them so that direct sunlight never strikes the interior. Direct sunlight heats things more than twice as fast as air temperature alone.

#4 Go to the movies in the early afternoon when it’s too hot to do anything else. It’s usually so cold in theaters that after you leave you won’t warm up for several hours.

#3 When downtown, always walk on the south side if possible, or the east side of the street before noon, and the west side of the street in the afternoon. This technique will always put you where there is shade from buildings. You may not be able to shop at your favorite stores but you’ll be much cooler.

#2 If you are talking to someone while in the sun, manuever yourself so that the sun strikes your backside. Most heat is absorbed through the skin on our face. Keeping your face turned away from the sun will make you feel more comfortable. This technique is even more pleasant when you are talking to someone you don’t like.

And, my number one technique for keeping cool on hot days . . .

#1 Get out of town! I recommend the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway since it’s the fastest way to escape the desert heat.

Cornett is a desert ecologist and author of Coachella Valley: Images of Nature.

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